Weekend Desert Getaway

One of my favorite short trips is out to Summer Lake Hot Springs in Eastern Oregon. I've been there about 20 times over the last 10 years but I keep finding new things to see and do.

On the way out, I stopped in at Lake Of The Woods, a very picturesque natural mountain lake resort:

I had dinner at the Cowboy Dinner Tree, which is a super cool, rustic spot outside of Silver Lake. The only two items to choose from are: a 26-30 ounce steak or a whole chicken.

Summer Lake Hot Springs has been a favorite of mine for a decade. I love being able to camp way out in the open.

I keep trying my hand at on-location product photography. Outdoors is always troublesome but sometimes I get a standout shot:

I visited the nearby Paisley Caves for the first time. (The terrain is not especially exciting but there is some archaeological intrigue - possibly the oldest human DNA traces found in The Americas.)

Got a nice crop panorama of the upper valley.

Another gem gone undiscovered under my nose is the Fremont National Recreation Trail, which cuts way up into the hills.

Every time I'm in the region, I have to revisit Lake Abert. It never disappoints.

This may be the trip where I truly bonded with the Sony/Zeiss 24mm - something about the contrast and colors it gets. My old Nikkor 55mm just feels kind of plain by comparison. I was also glad to have the Sigma 19. (Oddly the 30mm went unused this trip.)

Anyhoo... there it is. Thanks for looking!

Anyone interested can find a few more shots & higher res on my SmugMug Page.

Oh man, I'm sooooo jealous, Jeff! Looks like you had perfect weather, and you sure came back with some great shots. I love your "product shot" too. Hey, I bet you can now write off the whole trip on your taxes!

I've taken about 20 trips out to that place, but I keep finding new viewpoints and locations and my "wish" list is a long way from being fulfilled. Nevada and Utah have their charms to be sure, but there is something about this particular desert lake valley that I find especially lyrical.

The Chewucan River (going up out of Paisley) was also a real treat. The weather was perfect and I had a whole campground completely to myself, all day long. Seems like that just doesn't happen in more densely populated areas, anymore...

The star shot was 8 seconds at f/2, ISO 1600. I had some previous ones where the campfire was brighter and was overpowering the sky. I tried some crude HDR with those but prefer this capture overall. I am definitely NOT a night exposure expert, but the great thing about digital is you can do your trial & error on the spot!

Great! It looks so smooth and perfect! Also, how do you minimize noise in these kinds of shots? I'll be experimenting with long shutter night shots once I get a cheap enough tripod. So far, from my improvised method, noise is terrible!

*Improvised: Place camera on a sturdy object, like a table, set manual settings, use IR remote to trigger shutter... then wait.

I didn't do much special, except use a tripod (and focus my lens on the horizon before it got too dark out). Were that a serious marketable shot, I would probably use more noise reduction in Lightroom. To be honest, ISO1600 is a bit noisy by my new standards. I was just getting tired of waiting so long for each attempt at lower ISOs.